• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

goodbye Nvidia ..Hello Ati

M

Mikey20

Gawd
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Messages
762
Ok guys im upgrading from my Gainward Geforce FX5600nu .....and im really considering of getting a Sapphire Radeon 9600xt is this a big step forward or just a small one? Next step would be a 9700 correct? its a little out of my price range. $156 with free shipping on a sapphire 9600xt is a great price right? Then im selling my fx5600 on ebay.
 
anything higher than a 9700pro i can't afford.....but right now im only looking at the 9600xt to replace fx5600nu
 
The 9600XT is okay, the list goes something like this:
9600SE/ 9500np/ 9600np/ 9600Pro/ 9600XT& 9500Pro/ 9800SE/ 9700np/ 9700Pro/ 9800np/ 9800Pro/ 9800XT
--Edit--
 
im selling my playstation2 with 7 games lol this is how bad i want a great card for half-life 2!!! and im looking at 2 possible cards....

1. Radeon 9700 pro

VS

2. Radeon 9800 non pro

which is the better card?
 
I think your wasting your money if you don't go for at least a 9700Pro. A 9800Pro can be found for $250, wait and save up for that if you want ATI.

<200 = 5900SE with CoD while supplies last
>200 = 9800Pro (best value high end card)
 
Originally posted by Dillusion
9800NP is better than 9700pro
Click to expand...

Those two cards a close. Maybe a +/- 5% diff. Could be wrong (my memory isn't what it used to be).

Cheers,

Mr. Pain
 
Retail ATI Radeon 9600XT for $150 at Circuit City this week. Comes with the HL2 coupon.
 
I wouldn't advise a 9600, or anything ATI that's not 9700Pro or greater.

I'd go Nvidia for the less than 200$ price range. Screw the people on this forum who have ATI fetishes, it's the truth.

Perfectly honest I'd say don't upgrade at all yet. Really hold back as long as humanly possible, don't buy one until even AFTER HL2 comes out if possible. I got a 9800Pro last month at a tremendous deal, but I still feel this is HARDLY a jump in performance from my old card (a geforce 2) and that's already been outpaced by the XT, and surely another card will jump that by a couple hundred percentiles soon. Imagine if I had bought a 9600? The current games would already suffer on it. A 9800P just barely gets 60FPS in the recent games (and not even that!) The video card game SUCKS, feels like I'm throwing money out the window in exchange for nothing.

You can't spend less than 200$ and feel like you have your money's worth, a 9600 is easily 150$ (XT or Pro) and your getting half the performance of a 9800Pro. You get HL2 with it? goodie goodie, that'll console you nicely when your buying your next video card at the same time you redeem your HL2 coupon.
 
Originally posted by Brink
Screw the people on this forum who have ATI fetishes, it's the truth.
Click to expand...

When Nvidia comes out with a DX9 card thats worth a damn, I'll get one based on one condition, that it out perform the competition for less/the same amount of money. And I'm sure a great majority of the folks who voted ATI (90% I believe) in [H]ardOCP's front page poll a couple months back will agree with me. Fetishes included.
 
Brink you can say all you want, but people will always support and reccomendt the better product. Thats just the way it is.
 
In other words....is

9700np ....add $80 more for a 9800 PRO really worth the extra cash?
 
ok let me break it down... 3 cards..

1. Ati Radeon 9800 PRO -- $280
2. Sapphire Radeon 9700 PRO -- $250
3. Sapphire Radeon 9700 non Pro -- $200

.....whats the best deal here?
 
im really leaning towards 9700np $200+freeshipping
overclock it to PRO....no matter what i should be higher than my current fx5600 duh! even a 9500pro and 9600pro, and even 9600xt minus HL2 coupon. I think im going for a 9700np
 
The card Sapphire 9700 Pro - 128 MB
GPU ATI RADEON 9700 PRO
Memory (Max) 128 MB - DDR SDRAM
Memory/processor clock speed 325/310 MHz
RAMDAC Frequency 400 MHz
API OpenGL, DirectX, Direct3D
Support for two monitors Yes
Video Output 2048 x 1536 / 60 Hz - 24-bit (16.7M colours)
Interface AGP 8X
Ports and connector type 1 x DVI-Analogue Digital - 29 pin DVI
1 x VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)
1 x S-video output
Maximum resolution 2048x1536 / 60 Hz

look at the clock speeds....does this look normal? i thought it was 550mhz mem
 
do you really need a new vid card? you already have a 5600nu should be able to handle the games that you are playing right now

why not wait until the next gen of vid cards so that the price on the 9800Pro drops and see what happens
 
Originally posted by Mikey20
Ok guys im upgrading from my Gainward Geforce FX5600nu .....and im really considering of getting a Sapphire Radeon 9600xt is this a big step forward or just a small one? Next step would be a 9700 correct? its a little out of my price range. $156 with free shipping on a sapphire 9600xt is a great price right? Then im selling my fx5600 on ebay.
Click to expand...
The 5900NU is a good value for the price. The NU can be had for $184. If you are looking to pick up a copy of Call of Duty then the 5900SE would be a good value which can be had for $185. If you can't go higher than the $156 range stick with the 9600XT. However, I have heard bad things about the black PCB Sapphires which is what that 9600XT for $156 is I believe.

In the end though, I don't think your upgrade is really justified unless you plan on going to a 9800np or pro. Stick with what you have and save up.
 
God People all he wants to know is would the 9600 Radeon play his games better than his current 5600FX not hard is it?:rolleyes:
Yes the 9600 will perform alot better than the 5600fx.And just a side note.Get a 9600Pro as these can be had for around $130 now and are an absolute bargin for that price and overclock really well;)
 
There isn´t much of a difference between 9700 PRO and 9800 NP. You need a really good overclocking 9800 NP to make a 5 % difference in speed.

They are so close in performance they are really equal so get the one you can find for less money.
 
Originally posted by Mikey20
im selling my playstation2 with 7 games lol this is how bad i want a great card for half-life 2!!! and im looking at 2 possible cards....

1. Radeon 9700 pro

VS

2. Radeon 9800 non pro

which is the better card?
Click to expand...
It depends really... if the 9800np has Infineon memory, the 9700p will overclock with the mem a lot better because they usually come with the good Samsung stuff. As far as I know, 9800np's with Samsung or even Hynix have run out of supply so the 9800np is likely to have Infineon (because it was too easy to simply flash the 9800np's w/Samsung to the Pro BIOS or just overclock to Pro levels).

Memory aside, the cores overclock about the same if you remove the shim on the 9700 and use aftermarket cooling but this takes some guts and a lot of patience. Overall if you can even find a 9800np and not the 9800se (don't get me started on the 9800se), the 9800np will most likely give you less trouble with overclocking. However if you don't plan on overclocking, they both run about the same at stock and you would be hard pressed to notice a difference. Good luck.
 
If you are wanting a great card for HL2 WAIT UNTIL THE GAME IS OUT. Especially if you are on a budget. A 5600 will hold you out fine until then.
 
Okay so you guys are still looking at cards...
First off how long til your next upgrade?
What types of games are you going to play?
What games DO you want to play?
How bout case temps/ noise?
Are you going to OC?

By now you should know some of these things.
If you upgrade every few years (around 3 y) then you should go with ATI.
If you play mostly DX8 titles then you should get ATLEAST an nvidia 5700U/ 5900NU. If you play DX8 class games but want to play some newer titles then go ATI.
I mention temps because ATI cards tend to run alittle hotter then the nvidia ones (atleast thats what I've been hearing) so getting an after market cooler would be a good idea. With that in mind I hear that the Nvidia cards are a bit louder then ATI, but that could have changed.
If your going to OC then either card will do but because of certain things the ATI cards tend to be alittle finicky about it. That doesn't mean you won't get a good OC with ATI, it just means that you are going to have to really look at your prospective cards.
Stay away from ATI "SE" cards, there isn't a good thing I can say about them. Gee I'm not sure if I'm forgetting anything....

For full discloser I'm waiting for the new cores to be released, if there is a noticable improvement then I'll get one but if there isn't I plan on getting a 9700Pro/ 9800Pro since the prices would have gone down. There isn't a great deal difference between the two and you can typically OC the 9700Pro to just within striking distance of the 9800Pro. I hope you found this to be of some help and I hope you find a great card you can be proud. Don't forget ATI's trade-in program.
http://www.ati.com/buy/traderebate/tradeup.html
 
wow thats the best price i have seen for a 9700 pro im thinking of getting that one....over a 9800 pro which would cost me $100 extra....
 
Looking at the pics, it looks like it comes with Tomb Raider AOD too:)
 
Originally posted by Iconz1
Looking at the pics, it looks like it comes with Tomb Raider AOD too:)
Click to expand...
I doubt that game is worth the cds it was pressed on :eek:
 
Selling 2 vidcards in the other forum (buyer already lined up), and ordered my 9700pro today:D $209.00 w/ free 2day
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top